Blog

GSoC with BuildmLearn – Student Experiences (Anupam Das)

My proposal for “Improve existing BuildmLearn Toolkit app and add new templates to it” was selected for Google Summer of Code 2016. I (@opticod) worked with the organisation BuildmLearn under the awesome mentor-ship of Pankaj Nathani (@croozeus) and Neha Dhanwani (@NehaDhanwani).

First of all I would like to explain what BuildmLearn Toolkit app is:

Its is an easy-to-use android app that helps the users make another mobile apps without any knowledge of android application development. It helps creating mobile application with various functionality and allows teachers to input their custom content. Targeted at teachers, this toolkit helps them make learning fun and engaging through mobile apps.

Experiences

It all started with the Community Bonding period, which is a vital part of the GSoC. It’s intended to get students ready to start contributing to their organisation.

During this phase of GSoC, my mentor Pankaj Sir and I discussed and finalized the design. We also set a development approach, refined our project plan including finalizing deadlines and milestones, adding more detail and having an automated build system Travis-CI.

For Phase-I we completed:

Addition of new VideoCollection Template and its app.

Addition of new Comprehension Template and its app.

Adding the feature of creation of APK with unique android app for all the templates.

GSoC helped me improving my coding and developing skills. It has increased my interest for open-source. I often contributes in different open-source projects and publishes my own projects in Github. You can follow my codes here Github Profile.

Even after GSoC, I am regularly contributing in BuildmLearn’s projects. I also help and guide contributors who are new to open-source community. Reviewing their codes and merging them. Teaching them proper ways to make PRs and easily work on multiple issues at a time. Its Fun!

Conclusion

It was a great experience working for four months in my GSoC project under BuildmLearn. I (@opticod) sincerely thank my mentor Pankaj Nathani (@croozeus) and co-mentor Neha Dhanwani (@NehaDhanwani) for their support. Thanks Google and BuildmLearn for giving us this opportunity. 🙂

Below is a summary of tasks, repositories, releases and UI Designs that I worked on.

Task Goals Completed ::

Addition of new VideoCollection Template and its app.

Addition of new Comprehension Template and its app.

Addition of new Dictation Template and its app.

Addition of new Match Template and its app.

Improving design of InfoTemplate ‘s simulator and its app.

Improving design of Learn Spelling Template ‘s simulator and its app.

Improving design of Flash Card Template ‘s simulator and its app.

Improving design of Quiz Template ‘s simulator and its app.

Adding the feature of creation of APK with unique android app for all the templates.

Adding of automated build system – Travis CI.

Adding of automated code reviews and monitoring code quality system over time – Codacy.